The Prisoner of Sex

Mailer's book-length reply to Women's Liberation and to Kate Millett, expanded from the March Harper's essay and closing on a defense of D. H. Lawrence. Little, Brown, 27 May 1971; dedicated to Carol Stevens. Nominated for the National Book Award in arts and letters.

The Prisoner of Sex is Mailer’s book-length engagement with the Women’s Liberation movement, published by Little, Brown on 27 May 1971 (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, August). It expands and revises the essay that had first appeared as a cover story in the March Harper’s (see “The Prisoner of Sex,” 71.10). Only the first U.S. edition carries the price on the inside front dustwrapper flap. The dedication reads: “To Carol Stevens.”

The book answers Kate Millett’s treatment of him in Sexual Politics and, in its closing movement, becomes an extended appreciation of D. H. Lawrence — what Lennon judges Mailer’s most thoughtful literary criticism. Across the book Mailer plays on the polarity of his persona: “Since PW [prizewinner] could also stand for Prisoner of War (which he could amend to Prisoner of Wedlock, for he had never been able to live without a woman) he had another name for himself, the PW, Prisoner or Prizewinner? … After a time he thought of himself as the Prisoner.” It was nominated for the National Book Award in the arts and letters category (see National Book Awards).

The book grew directly out of the public quarrel with Women’s Liberation that ran through Mailer’s spring: the 30 April Town Hall panel “A Dialogue on Women’s Liberation” (71.16) and Germaine Greer‘s “My Mailer Problem” (71.27). Reviews divided sharply — Brigid Brophy was scathing in the New York Times Book Review (prompting Mailer’s reply, “71.22”), Anatole Broyard admiring in the daily Times, and Joyce Carol Oates and V. S. Pritchett took its measure in paired Atlantic essays. Portions reappear in The Time of Our Time (98.7) and Mind of an Outlaw (13.1).

Related pages

• “The Prisoner of Sex” (essay, 71.10)
• “A Dialogue on Women’s Liberation” (71.16) and 71.17-71.19, 71.23
• Germaine Greer‘s “My Mailer Problem” (71.27) | Carol Stevens
• Little, Brown and Company | National Book Awards | 1971
• Letter to the New York Times Book Review (71.22) | The Time of Our Time (98.7) | The Mind of an Outlaw: Selected Essays of Norman Mailer (13.1)

First published: 1971-05-27
Form: essay
Lennon & Lennon: 71.20
Cite as: /works/1971-05-27-prisoner-of-sex
Last updated: 2026-06-04